2 years just for characters and family posts lmao. I started following the author long back cuz the premise and characters seemed interested although very ambitious. But after I saw the author just putting out character posts for months without any content, I realised this wasn't going anywhere.Is anyone still following https://www.tumblr.com/haydenigmatic? This author is just ridiculous
There hasn't been any major progress since 2023 (they didn't even manage to transfer the tiny demo that was there to Cog demos) but comes back every few months swearing that they will never abandon this project and that they are still working on it. The people Cog Forum and Tumblr are like "oh I'm so happy, can't wait to read it, take care of yourself and take your time" or talking about the details of the countless noble families and royal families from other countries. Wtf xDD This game basically doesn't exist.
Choice of Mods
Join our amazing community to find Choicescript games and modifications to improve your gameplay!
Stories that left you disappointed for a reason
- Thread starter Sant
- Start date
From the description it seemed that MC wouldn't be some pathetic loser, and I liked some of the LIs. The demo was quite nice, even if short and only about MC's childhood.
Too bad. I'm still waiting for some new well written IF with royals (Arcadie: Second-Born and The Sword of Rhivenia are not good, imo
).It has to be some kind of achievement to make the MC's family so unlikable.
#StanislasWasRight
Donāt worry, I didnāt ask what everyoneās playing simply to give my opinion, I just wanted to see if I am the only one unable to pick up any IF latelyāIāve played most of the titles mentioned here too, which is probably inevitable after keeping up with these IFs for 8 years.
Visual Novels
* I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Iāve always wanted to try this one after finding it while searching for games like BitLife and after playing Growing Up. Unfortunately, I could never find a Mac-compatible version.
* Lust Odyssey: I made a lot of progress in this one, but realized I didnāt like some of the choices I made. I restarted, intending to do things differently, but ended up dropping itātoo lazy to go through it all again. Still, for an NSFW game, the plot is solid, the choices carry weight, and the relationships are surprisingly nuanced. I think itās doing so well because it escaped criticisms of a certain category simply since all the LIs are male.
* Love Lock: I didnāt enjoy being forced into a route so earlyāand so suddenly. I was hoping for more yandere competition between Sebastian and the boyfriend, but the boyfriend either dies or disappears once youāre kidnapped. I canāt even find the boyfriend route. That said, I do appreciate that thereās an option to catch Sebastian with the policeāIāve always wanted that in a yandere story.
* Online Obsession: This one is a gemāgreat art, interesting personality choices, and engaging character interactions. The animated mini-games are a fun touch. Iām really looking forward to the full release, even though I wasnāt a fan of My Sweet! Housemate from the same dev.
Interactive Fiction
* One Knight Stand: There are so many choices and branching paths, which is usually a plus, but 90% of the time I have no idea whatās going on. It reads like a fever dreamāeverything happens all at once. As a perfectionist, I struggle with deciding on a background and sticking to a personality. If I play it again, Iāll probably just pick options randomly and see where it leads. Also, I miss a lot of the Easter eggs and humor since Iām not a movie buff and I am not familiar with the pop culture references.
* Weeping Gods: I like it, but most of the ROs seem to push the MC away, which gets frustrating.
* Jolly Good: Tea and Scones: Iād love to try the new demo, but I barely remember anything from the first book.
* Mind Blind: Iāve had to replay it so many timesāfirst because of code changes, then because of new links, and now with Cogdemos being unreliable, I think Iāll just wait for the full release.
More VNs
* Andromeda Six: When I was new to VNs, it felt fresh and exciting. Now, all the routes feel too similarālike they just swap out the sprite and tweak a few lines based on the LIās background and relationship with the MC.
* Infinite Stars: I agree with the sentiment. Itās more choice-heavy than most VNs, but the last update introduced bugs that break progression and forces you to restart. The dev only acknowledged that saves no longer work after someone brought it up on F95. Also, I was totally blindsided (and lowkey traumatized) by that forced scene with naked Veera in the gymāespecially since I wasnāt even romancing her, wtf.
* Killer Chat: Honestly, this is the worst chat-style VN Iāve ever played. These types of games are already limited in plot due to the format, but here itās worseāyou only communicate via a Discord-style app, only see the LIs through video calls, and you're forced to share them with other LIs. Some of these characters were even together in the past, and youāre expected to be chill about it, let them have a say in your new relationship, and have them match make you because they know the LI better than you or risk losing affection points with your chosen LI. The romance took forever to start, and I couldnāt finish it. I definitely prefer single-LI chat VNs.
* Rose of Segunda / Thorns of War: Leopoldās route was perfection. I havenāt been able to bring myself to try any other routeācanāt imagine a version where Iolanthe and Leo arenāt together.
IFs (continued)
* Kingdoms and Empires: I agree with the opinions others have already expressed here.
* POMA / Aura Clash: I donāt think Iāll be reading anything by these authors again.
* The Bastard of Camelot: The updates content feels like being fed with a micropipette.
------------------------------------------
Surprised no one has mentioned Misplaced yet. Am I the only one who feels like the choices fall flat? Interacting with Az'Lean feels more like a child speaking to a parental figureāheās always right, and only his opinion matters. The MC constantly gets rebuked, and thereās barely any romance. If you donāt romance him, Thianneās relationship with him gets more attention than anything you get. I chose to reveal that the MC is fae, but it hasnāt led to anythingāit hasnāt even been brought up again. Now I kind of regret telling him. Maybe saving that reveal would have had more impact.
Iāve also been replaying Crown of Exile to try Orenās route. I kept choosing the bold flirt options, but after the third time I got yet another variant of :āØ "Sir Oren gazes at you, a faint blush on his cheeks." / "My duty is to ensure both you and His Highness are safe." And honestly, I couldnāt bring myself to keep reading after that.
Visual Novels
* I Was a Teenage Exocolonist: Iāve always wanted to try this one after finding it while searching for games like BitLife and after playing Growing Up. Unfortunately, I could never find a Mac-compatible version.
* Lust Odyssey: I made a lot of progress in this one, but realized I didnāt like some of the choices I made. I restarted, intending to do things differently, but ended up dropping itātoo lazy to go through it all again. Still, for an NSFW game, the plot is solid, the choices carry weight, and the relationships are surprisingly nuanced. I think itās doing so well because it escaped criticisms of a certain category simply since all the LIs are male.
* Love Lock: I didnāt enjoy being forced into a route so earlyāand so suddenly. I was hoping for more yandere competition between Sebastian and the boyfriend, but the boyfriend either dies or disappears once youāre kidnapped. I canāt even find the boyfriend route. That said, I do appreciate that thereās an option to catch Sebastian with the policeāIāve always wanted that in a yandere story.
* Online Obsession: This one is a gemāgreat art, interesting personality choices, and engaging character interactions. The animated mini-games are a fun touch. Iām really looking forward to the full release, even though I wasnāt a fan of My Sweet! Housemate from the same dev.
Interactive Fiction
* One Knight Stand: There are so many choices and branching paths, which is usually a plus, but 90% of the time I have no idea whatās going on. It reads like a fever dreamāeverything happens all at once. As a perfectionist, I struggle with deciding on a background and sticking to a personality. If I play it again, Iāll probably just pick options randomly and see where it leads. Also, I miss a lot of the Easter eggs and humor since Iām not a movie buff and I am not familiar with the pop culture references.
* Weeping Gods: I like it, but most of the ROs seem to push the MC away, which gets frustrating.
* Jolly Good: Tea and Scones: Iād love to try the new demo, but I barely remember anything from the first book.
* Mind Blind: Iāve had to replay it so many timesāfirst because of code changes, then because of new links, and now with Cogdemos being unreliable, I think Iāll just wait for the full release.
More VNs
* Andromeda Six: When I was new to VNs, it felt fresh and exciting. Now, all the routes feel too similarālike they just swap out the sprite and tweak a few lines based on the LIās background and relationship with the MC.
* Infinite Stars: I agree with the sentiment. Itās more choice-heavy than most VNs, but the last update introduced bugs that break progression and forces you to restart. The dev only acknowledged that saves no longer work after someone brought it up on F95. Also, I was totally blindsided (and lowkey traumatized) by that forced scene with naked Veera in the gymāespecially since I wasnāt even romancing her, wtf.
* Killer Chat: Honestly, this is the worst chat-style VN Iāve ever played. These types of games are already limited in plot due to the format, but here itās worseāyou only communicate via a Discord-style app, only see the LIs through video calls, and you're forced to share them with other LIs. Some of these characters were even together in the past, and youāre expected to be chill about it, let them have a say in your new relationship, and have them match make you because they know the LI better than you or risk losing affection points with your chosen LI. The romance took forever to start, and I couldnāt finish it. I definitely prefer single-LI chat VNs.
* Rose of Segunda / Thorns of War: Leopoldās route was perfection. I havenāt been able to bring myself to try any other routeācanāt imagine a version where Iolanthe and Leo arenāt together.
IFs (continued)
* Kingdoms and Empires: I agree with the opinions others have already expressed here.
* POMA / Aura Clash: I donāt think Iāll be reading anything by these authors again.
* The Bastard of Camelot: The updates content feels like being fed with a micropipette.
------------------------------------------
Surprised no one has mentioned Misplaced yet. Am I the only one who feels like the choices fall flat? Interacting with Az'Lean feels more like a child speaking to a parental figureāheās always right, and only his opinion matters. The MC constantly gets rebuked, and thereās barely any romance. If you donāt romance him, Thianneās relationship with him gets more attention than anything you get. I chose to reveal that the MC is fae, but it hasnāt led to anythingāit hasnāt even been brought up again. Now I kind of regret telling him. Maybe saving that reveal would have had more impact.
Iāve also been replaying Crown of Exile to try Orenās route. I kept choosing the bold flirt options, but after the third time I got yet another variant of :āØ "Sir Oren gazes at you, a faint blush on his cheeks." / "My duty is to ensure both you and His Highness are safe." And honestly, I couldnāt bring myself to keep reading after that.
Last edited:
I actually like Misplaced. I like that the author is consistent with update. And the story seems promising enough to me.
Regarding Az'lean's reaction tho, I think it makes sense that he reacts that way? He's someone who's holding a grudge (and also blinded by rage?) so it's only right that he won't listen so easily to what MC says.
Yeah, the revelation route is a bit underwhelming. I was a bit disappointed that he doesn't react so strongly. I was expecting at least some kind of cold treatment from him after revealing my true nature, but no I don't feel he's acting any different. He said it himself that he's going to "use" us. But so far nothing happened. He still treats us like... an equal? Not a tool, like he said. So revealing our fae nature doesn't really make an impact.
I hope the author will add some "unhinged" Az'lean's moments where he does use MC like a tool. And I hope in the future we get into a really huge argument with him, hell maybe even a deadly fight for more drama
Or maybe a scene where MC can kind of sacrifice themselves to protect Az'lean. I want MC's actions to be able to change Az'lean's perspective of the fae
Got bored. I enjoy Fae/Faerie stories but there was something weird about the way the fae are portrayed in the story. I couldn't put my finger on it then, but the fair folk just felt too human for me. Also the whole premise was very clearly not for me.
Aura Clash is ok when you play it the way it's clearly meant to be played, an unhinged marital arts game. I'm only still playing POMA because I want to see exactly how Nicki screws over Ruo's romance since it's supposed to be a slow burn. Every non-Mei romance (that has actually started) has been thoroughly ****ed over so far, special mention to Tigress and Ai romancers on that part so I'm here for the train-crash. Ruo's is author's favourite OC so it's bound to be glorious.
At least Bastard of Camelot's writer at least tries especially with their hand/wrist problems (damaged nerves), Wayfarer's writer keeps trying to stick to a schedule that is frustrating everyone, themselves included. Last public story update was in 2022 and Episode 3 still isn't half done yet + the author wants to start Ep 4 before posting 3. It's clear they bit off more than they can chew with Wayfarer but refuses to get help or try to dial down the scale of things. If Ep 3 releases before the end of 2027 at this rate, I'd be shocked.
Honestly, Wayfarer's writer suffers from the same problem a lot of IF writers suffer from but with much better writing. Ambition is good but only when you know your limits. Don't publicly publish something you know damn well you're going to get bored of and not finish. Especially if you're going to ask for people's money in patreon or whatever. Sometimes ideas just need to stay really nice idea.
Wayfarer is so frustrating to me because the characters I'm actually curious about either haven't been introduced yet, had like 30 seconds of screen time, or have been pushed aside in favour of *checks notes* yet another branching route for Aeran.
Speaking of frustrating characters... My greatest frustration is when IF writers force your MC to have a best friend without any option of ruining said friendship. Idk, somehow being forced to be besties with someone who gets on my nerves (Fadiya from crown of ashes or whatever it's called comes to mind) is in my top-3 things list of things that make me instantly drop an IF.
Speaking of frustrating characters... My greatest frustration is when IF writers force your MC to have a best friend without any option of ruining said friendship. Idk, somehow being forced to be besties with someone who gets on my nerves (Fadiya from crown of ashes or whatever it's called comes to mind) is in my top-3 things list of things that make me instantly drop an IF.
The funny thing about it is that as far as I remember, Aeran isn't listed as a full RO, and the author was pretty open about the fact that *something* is going to happen with him. Does he die? Turn into an enemy? Gets kidnapped by an UFO? Idk, but he sure gets a lot of attention so far.
The game is more of an RPG in a text format, so the author would indeed benefit from some outside help.
Lustful Desires is very similar, but fantasy.
Afaik it's exactly what they do? I remember going through the same scene with diferent characters/ROs, and a part of text was shared between them.
Imo they work fine if you treat them as martial arts games first, everything second. I prefer AC since it doesn't take itself too seriously tbh.
Am I the only one who finds that animations and sounds don't really enhance the atmosphere in this one? Idk, might be because I have trouble reading it as a horror game in the first place, the writing style is more on the joking/light-hearted side most of the time.
Agreed, the author started strong with the opening part. That was genuinely scary to me
had me thinking someone couldāve been in my house, but the rest of it kind of lacks a good balance between the comedy and everything else.
It's choice dependent and needs a low relationship score but he can become your enemy especially if you side with/ have a positive relationship with the High mage guy. Otherwise, he's the only link that we have to what happened down at HQ and he's lying to us about probably near everything about it.
Given the structure of the game (a ton of branching), I don't think he isn't listed just because it depends on this one choice (or not antagonizing him, which will probably be true for others you can romance as well). I think the reason his romance is so well-hidden might be partly to dissuade people from going down that path easily (lol) in case I'm right and something does take him out of the picture later on.
I mean, the fish guy is listed as a romance, and afaik he can just straight up die right in chapter one?
Yeah it's pretty obvious he's hiding stuff, kinda curious how all of this will play out
Last edited:
This is so true... And its not like i am against this, its fine, when it's written well of course. But its getting kind of exhausting. I really need some more palate cleanser if's.
Generally, there's so much depressing stuff, and something wholesome/light - i can count on the fingers of one hand.
Iām sorry, Iām guilty of this but I love tortured MCs and dark themes.
I just find it more compelling to read about, donāt know why.I think she would've benefitted greatly from having someone doing the code for her. I know a good chunk of struggles came from the game having a ton of branching that is hard to account for.
Tbh, I love Wayfarer because the prose is cool, the worldbuilding is pretty neat if not the most original, the characters seem to have more going on than being there to move plot around for the MC, and I even used to support the author on the Patreon when chapter 1 came out, but the lack of substantial updates made me put the game aside. My bet is the author will eventually lose the motivation to finish it.
Nah, the main fish guy is the one you meet in ch.2, and he's unkillable. The other half-fiish guy that is killable is a fling or smth.
I like tortured MCs. I dislike it when I'm not even given an option to fight against the trauma or, like, keep it under control, and just ~have~ to keep spiraling until the story decides otherwise.
Then again, in at least some cases it feels like the trauma is mainly there to make ROs fawn over the MC (nevermind that irl, ppl with trauma usually chase others away rather than attract them lol)
You can see this also from the asks in the vein of "how would ROs react to an MC that's crying over every little thing". You can just tell the sender is fishing for a scenario of MC being coddled. And the answer is never "will tell them to get over it" or "wouldn't be intetested in someone like that" x)
Then again, in at least some cases it feels like the trauma is mainly there to make ROs fawn over the MC (nevermind that irl, ppl with trauma usually chase others away rather than attract them lol)
You can see this also from the asks in the vein of "how would ROs react to an MC that's crying over every little thing". You can just tell the sender is fishing for a scenario of MC being coddled. And the answer is never "will tell them to get over it" or "wouldn't be intetested in someone like that" x)
Yeah I meant this one, he's still listed as a secondary romance on the blog.
(The green fish guy, not the blue one xDD Sorry I forgot the names)
I think shepherds of haven needed to be multiple books, there are so many plot points and characters that a singular game doesn't do any of them justice. I enjoy it a lot and is one of my all time favorites, but i can't help but feel that there's a lot of plot but not enough time to explore it?
I kinda wish the author had the resources to make it into a game like Baldur's Gate
Also, if you want to keep an amount of seriousness for a character do not go to the tumblr, people sometimes ask pretty good questions but it's mostly the author having some fun toying with her characters ^ā^"
I kinda wish the author had the resources to make it into a game like Baldur's Gate
Also, if you want to keep an amount of seriousness for a character do not go to the tumblr, people sometimes ask pretty good questions but it's mostly the author having some fun toying with her characters ^ā^"
Yes, the game changes scenery too often. Also has the side-effect of making it feel like the demon lords are a tad too easy to deal with...
Too late, this has already ruined Blade for me >->